Annette Young is pleased to welcome our international affairs editor, Philip Turle, and Sylvie Bermann, France’s first female ambassador to three member countries of the United Nations Security Council: China, the United Kingdom and Russia. The AfD’s breakthrough in Saxony-Anhalt should be understood, according to Sylvie Bermann, as part of a wider transformation of European politics rather than as an isolated German electoral shock. Brexit and Donald Trump’s victories helped normalise political positions previously regarded as outside the governing mainstream, while successive economic and geopolitical crises have weakened confidence in established parties. ​